SEO.com Content Collective, July, 8 2013

Another week, another list of great content from around the web. The quality and value of links has been the subject of much discussion, especially as the penguins and pandas continue to play havoc with rankings, and so we start with a crazy-in-depth post on the trends, tools, and strategies around modern link building.

Google’s algorithm isn’t the only thing that changes, though, and a couple of the tools that many of us have used for years are about to be replaced by a more integrated option. And then you have to ask yourself if you’re really using Google’s social network to its full potential.

This amazing post includes link building advice from many of the industry experts, including Aaron Wall, Debra Mastaler, Rand Fishkin, Rae Hoffman (who also wrote the post), and others. Rae has been writing this series since 2007, but with all the huge changes that have occurred over the last year, there are some particularly important points in this one.

This post is more than just a collection of blurbs from the experts, though. She presents this information in a question and answer format, and everyone gets a chance to respond to a question posed by one of the others. The result is some insightful and actionable advice. Seriously, don’t just skim this post. It’s a long one, but it covers everything from the current value of links in the algorithm to the most important SEO tools and how disavowing links works. Take the time to dig deep into this one.

Are you getting the most out of your keyword research, or have you found the old tools to be a little clunky and hard to use? This tool combines the Keyword Tool and Traffic estimator so “You can use Keyword Planner to find new keyword and ad group ideas, get performance estimates for them to find the bid and budget that are right for you, and then add them to your campaigns.”

Streamlining your AdWords campaign is extremely important, because you can’t just sit back on it and hope everything continues to go well. The Keyword Planner was just launched in May, but every new tool takes some getting used to, and you’ll want to get to know the new tool soon because there are some important differences, and the old ones are on their way out (in a couple of weeks, probably).

This infographic presents a lot of great advice about getting the most from your Google+ strategy. Google’s social network is about more than just connecting with friends, and businesses can and should use it to build their brand and potentially influence their rankings as authorship becomes more and more important. This list of strategies can help you stop talking about it and get doing it. There are a lot of opportunities here that go way beyond just link building.

Andy Eliason has been writing in the SEO industry longer than is technically healthy. He once considered counting all the words he has written over the years, but decided that such an endeavor could only end in tears.